Tuesday, February 26, 2008

mini book! (and ali edwards)

Yo girls! I miss you! All this talk of the bus tour makes me wish I didn't live so dang far away. Y'all have to promise me ONE thing. If I can't go, will one of you snag me something awesome? Thanks.

Okay, so all day today I planned on starting the sketch challenge but got totally hung up on this mini board book I wanted to make. I know you all must know Ali Edwards, right? She has a blog, which I love, and also a Flickr account. She also has this life art newsletter she publishes every so often online with little challenges and articles. I've been reading her stuff lately and I love it. She's such a fabulous photographer, and we all know how wonderful her scrapbooking skills are. I have the Life Artist book, which I haven't finished reading. Just looking through it is enough to make me feel inspired. I've started working with paint more often, getting in touch with my roots so to speak.

ANYWAY, if you read her blog, her weekend entry features a mini book she created. She created the cover by layering items and then painting the whole thing one color. I loved this, and she challenged the internets to do something similar over the weekend. So I thought about it all weekend and finally did mine today.

I love green (even my iPod is green) and I've been running around painting things green lately. I'll have to post a picture of it but I even painted a jewelry box I got for Christmas GREEN. It looks great...much better than it did as a plain cherry stained box.

So I chose green for my cover.

This is actually not a photo of the FINISHED cover...I added aqua stickles all around the edges (sparingly) and around the white "baby" and the star. So it was simple. I didn't add a whole bunch of dimension to this smally book, just the star. But it gives the effect I wanted. Simple and subdued.

The theme is obviously baby memories. There are TONS of milestones/moments/memories I haven't scrapbooked yet. Eleana is growing SO fast that I barely have enough time to keep up with her. I've had these wallet sized pictures lying around the office forever, waiting to be put somewhere, in something. I finally just created this general book of favorites using those pictures, and I wish I had room to add more.

Making this book also gave me the chance to use up some of the baby themed items I have, that I NEVER used. Like the "sleep tight" sign. It's actually metal, and surprisingly thin for a metal embelleshment. And all these pinky stickers (like the one that says "naptime" above) are finally diminishing, though I still have half of a sheet left.

The journaling above reads: As an infant, any place in the apartment was suitable for a nap. Eleana felt most comfy on her Boppy (if she wasn't in our arms.) Naps were eratic and short, but seemed so blissful to our sweet girl.

Page 2 (above) is a little more personal, documenting (briefly) our time nursing. The journaling reads: Breastfeeding Eleana was one of the best things I've done for her as her mother, though challenging at times. We lasted 8 months, until Eleana decided she'd rather feed herself.

The picture of us together above is one of my all-time favorites of us. She looks so happy-go-lucky, which is exactly who she is, even today. The green strip between the two pictures of her eating says "nurture" but it didn't photograph well.

Okay, the last page in the book is all about Daddy. The bottom photo on the left is censored per Daddy's request. It's a picture of our 2-month-old girly laying on his bare chest. He hates when his chest is hairy, and in the picture it's super hairy, so he didn't want everyone to see it. Insert giggling here. There's no journaling on this page. No room. I love the picture on the right so much that I had to make it big. The color is off here too. The "bundle of joy" tag should be pink.

The back cover isn't fabulous...just plain and pretty.

Tomorrow I'm doing the sketch. I already know what picture I'm using and everything!XOXOXO

7 comments:

What a fabulous little book. I love it. It makes me want to make one. You have inspired me girl. The pictures of "E" are adorable. I too nursed and know how hard it can be! You made it longer than I did. I only did it for 4 months. I agree it was the best thing I too could have done as a mother. I mean it brought us so close and we bonded. When I stopped doing it I was depressed in a way because that was our time. Only another mother that nursed would know the feeling!!! Love the book. Awesome job. I am going to check out Ali's blog as well as Flickr. Never heard of it till you guys did the challenge. (((HUGS)))

Ali Edwards is one of my FAVS, so you KNOW I was all over this one! Where do I start, where do I start? Okay FIRST, I love I repeat LOVE anything with scallops. I even love the food. Next, I REMEMBER E at this age. Even that pose she made when she fell asleep! Wow. It's cool you're going back and doing this because we can forget how precious that time was. I need to go back now and do one myself! The book is precious. And totally you. I can reconize your style a mile away. And I love it.

Thanks girls! Nicole - 4 months is still such a long time. I wish I could've gone 12 months nursing to be honest. That was my goal. We had a lot of difficulties with my milk supply, and at one point E lost weight (not much though!) so we had to wean. It was SO depressing. Did you feel like you were losing your ability to feed your baby? I did. It was the most bizarre, and emotion-full time of my life. I still want to do a 12x12 page about those struggles in particular.

Sharon - I know you love scallops! I do too. I wish I had more things of a scalloped nature. All I have now are the small scissors that are scalloped...and they're not great. I remember nursing E in your house girlfriend! It still touches us that you were her first visitor at home. I can't believe you recognize my style. I'm having a hard time recognizing it myself.

What is 'Made with Love?'

What do we consider to be made with love? Our children, our artwork, our friendship and so much more. We are four fabulous women who started scrapbooking together at our local scrapbooking store. Some of us knew each other going into it, some of us met through other scrapbookers and friends. When one of us moved out of state we took it upon ourselves to create this little blog as a way to bond over the distances. We share our lives here, and strengthen our bonds.